Cronin v. Midwestern Oklahoma Development Authority

619 F.2d 856, 1980 U.S. App. LEXIS 18873
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedApril 8, 1980
DocketNos. 77-1640 to 77-1646
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 619 F.2d 856 (Cronin v. Midwestern Oklahoma Development Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cronin v. Midwestern Oklahoma Development Authority, 619 F.2d 856, 1980 U.S. App. LEXIS 18873 (10th Cir. 1980).

Opinion

WILLIAM E. DOYLE, Circuit Judge.

INTRODUCTORY

These two cases are each consolidated appeals from a series of orders of the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Involved are two securities fraud actions brought under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78j; SEC Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.-10b-5; antifraud provisions of the Oklahoma Securities Act, Okla.Stat.Ann. title 71 § 408; and common-law theories of fraud and negligence. Both cases were instituted as class actions on behalf of purchasers of two industrial development revenue bond issues of the Midwestern Oklahoma Development Authority (MODA). Both bond issues are now in default. Numerous defendants were named in each complaint, including the issuer, its officials, the private corporations which were to receive the bond proceeds, underwriters, bond counsel, and indenture trustees, as well as the broker-dealers who sold plaintiffs the bonds. Only the bond counsel and the indenture-trustee banks are parties to this appeal.

The trial judge granted summary judgment motions across-the-board of appellee-bond counsel and banks. The court also entered two orders under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b) directing entry of final judgment in each case so as to facilitate the appeals. Additional orders of the trial were also under Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(g). These restrained each plaintiff from taking further depositions until certain sums had been paid into the clerk of the court, as a sanction for alleged failure by the plaintiffs’ counsel to cooperate with defendants’ counsel by releasing the latter from continued attendance at the taking of the deposition of one R. J. Allen. The orders in each case were separately consolidated for purposes of appeal. Although the two cases themselves have not been consolidated, they do involve parties and issues sufficiently interrelated so that a single opinion is appropriate at this stage.

We have concluded that there was insufficient time allowed by the trial court to the plaintiffs to permit them to conduct adequate discovery on the merits of their cases. The plaintiffs were entitled to develop the evidence and formulate the applicable legal standards. The trial court is directed to vacate all of the summary judgment orders entered in each case. The cases as a whole are ordered to be remanded to the trial court with instructions to allow the parties additional time for discovery on the merits and for trial. We also vacate the several [859]*859orders in each case entered under Fed.R. Civ.P. 30(g) in accordance with the terms of the mandate set forth at the end of the opinion.

There is one other trial court order involved in these appeals, that is, the order dated March 31, 1977, directing plaintiff Cronin to serve a copy of the exhibit attached to the Nichols affidavit on each opposing party in the Cronin ease. It is our understanding that Cronin has already complied with this order; therefore, no action is necessary with respect to it.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The plaintiffs-appellants in each case, Michael P. Cronin and Fred A. W. Franke, are former Vietnam-era prisoners of war. Each were victims of a flagrant fraud which was initiated and brought about by a Florida municipal bond broker-dealer, Alexander & Allen, Inc., its officers and its salesmen. The principals of Alexander & Allen, including salesman Thomas A. Preston who sold Cronin and Franke the bonds in these cases, have been the subject of a civil injunctive action by the SEC and criminal proceedings as well. For a full discussion of the fraudulent activities of Alexander & Allen, Inc., see SEC v. R. J. Allen & Assoc., 386 F.Supp. 866 (S.D.Fla.1974). The crux of it is that representatives of Alexander & Allen preyed upon former POWs returning to the United States who had substantial sums of back pay accumulated during their years of imprisonment. These former POWs received substantial cash on release and were solicited to purchase high-risk industrial development bonds, with false representations that the bonds were safe and secure investments. The district court in SEC v. R. J. Allen & Assoc., supra, found that Alexander & Allen was a “boiler room,” that is, a dealer offering securities of certain issuers in large volume through an intensive selling campaign, without disclosure of material facts concerning the issuers. Id. at 874. Although the principals of Alexander & Allen were named as defendants in these cases, two are in prison, all are apparently insolvent, and therefore none are parties in this appeal.

Among the securities featured by Alexander & Allen in its sales campaigns were industrial development bonds of the Midwestern Oklahoma Development Authority (MODA). MODA is an Oklahoma public trust organized in 1969 as a financing agency to attract industry to an area near the Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

THE CRONIN CASE

Appellant Cronin purchased one $5,000 MODA Harper Industries 9% bond, Series 1972 B, due in 1985, through Alexander & Allen in August of 1973. The Harper Industries bonds were issued by MODA in two series, Series A and Series B, on the same date in July 1972 for the purpose of financing development of a plastic salt and pepper shaker manufacturing business. Supposedly, tool and die equipment was to be obtained, and leasehold improvements to a MODA-owned building at the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark were to be made from the bond proceeds. The bond issue, which had a face amount of $1.3 million, was underwritten by United City Corp. (not a party to this case). Defendant-appellee Guaranty Trust Co. of Ponca City, Oklahoma served as indenture trustee. Two different law firms — each of which are appel-lees here — acted as bond counsel: Haswell & Gordon prepared a bond opinion concerning the legality and tax status of the Series B bonds; Fred W. Rausch, Jr. prepared an opinion concerning the Series A bonds. When Cronin received his Series B bond in the mail after purchase, the Rausch bond opinion addressed to the Series A bonds was enclosed. Cronin read the Rausch opinion, but he did not receive nor, of course, read a copy of the Haswell & Gordon opinion concerning the Series B bonds.

Cronin received interest on his Harper Industries bond coupon in January 1974, but his July 1974 coupon was returned unpaid. After learning that the bond issue was in default, he contacted the Navy JAG office in Washington, D. C. He served as a witness at the SEC proceedings against Alex[860]*860ander & Allen. Later, Cronin contacted a private attorney and filed this class action under federal and state securities laws, as well as common-law theories of fraud, negligence and willful and wanton conduct. Cronin also sought punitive damages from the defendants, and an accounting firm from the defendant bank. Cronin’s 10b-5 claim alleged that the defendants, including the appellee bond counsel and bank, violated or aided and abetted violations of Rule 10b-5 in the issuance of the Harper Industries bonds.

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